What Does Leviticus 2:9 Mean?
And the priest lifts from the gift its remembrance, and sends it up in smoke upon the altar, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.THE KEY
The offering leaves a portion whose name means remembrance: what is given becomes present before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The priest lifts a memorial portion from the offering and burns it on the altar as a sweet savour unto the LORD. Giving and remembrance meet here: what is released is still held in relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what is given up simply disappears is undone: the verse names the portion that rises as a memorial before the LORD.
THE ROOT
אַזְכָּרָה
azkarah
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, recall, bring to mind.
The Hebrew names this portion through the root of remembering. The offering is not only burned; its appointed portion is a remembrance before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
zakar: To remember, call to mind.
זָכַר
This verb makes explicit the action held inside the word “memorial”: the offering is linked to remembering.
zikkaron: Remembrance, memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
This related noun shows that the root can name both the act of remembering and a memorial that keeps something present.
THE PATTERN
What is brought before God is held in remembrance beyond the moment of giving.
And this day will be for you a remembrance. You will keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations, a statute for the ages.May he remember all your offerings, and make your rising offering rich. Selah.And when he stretched his gaze upon him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your acts of compassion have come up as a memorial before God.THE THREAD
May he remember all your offerings, and make your rising offering rich. Selah.“Remember” in the psalm shares the Hebrew root זכר (z-k-r, remember) with Leviticus’s “memorial.” The psalm makes the root’s link visible: the offering rises as something remembered before God.
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